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Notebook battery life vs. Ubuntu

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 3:20 pm
by tsuby
Would Linux Mint(Cinnamon) have a better battery life than Ubuntu(Unity) ?
I already have Ubuntu on my noteboook and I use the Bumblebee project to improve battery life time(altough it is still 2h less than on Windows).
Also, are there different drivers for components on Mint than on Ubuntu? I would like a better driver to improve my wireless signal(it's better in Windows).

Re: Notebook battery life vs. Ubuntu

Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2013 6:21 pm
by passerby
I'd think your battery life would remain much the same. If you want better battery life you'll see more variation between kernels than DE's, in my experience.
You might get better battery life with a less demanding DE such as xfce, but overall the DE doesn't make much difference, at least in my experience.
You should give powertop a try if you want to extend your battery life.

The wireless should be much the same. You may get better support for your wireless card in mint by using mintwifi and attempting to install the proprietary windows driver.

Re: Notebook battery life vs. Ubuntu

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 1:59 am
by bb333
tsuby wrote:Would Linux Mint(Cinnamon) have a better battery life than Ubuntu(Unity) ?
I already have Ubuntu on my noteboook and I use the Bumblebee project to improve battery life time(altough it is still 2h less than on Windows).
Also, are there different drivers for components on Mint than on Ubuntu? I would like a better driver to improve my wireless signal(it's better in Windows).

Code: Select all

$ sudo apt-get install powertop

Code: Select all

$ sudo powertop
Do what it tells you to do to save more battery. You must run each time on battery as settings do not save. Saving 2hrs on battery life is very doable with powertop.

Re: Notebook battery life vs. Ubuntu

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 5:24 am
by tsuby
Thank you, I'll try powertop.